These movies aren't necessarily documentaries. The just-released “Interstellar” is considered part of the cli-fi genre. Short for “climate fiction,” the genre has environmental issues at its core. Many novels are set in a dystopian world where climate change has wreaked havoc on the planet. (This photo released by Paramount Pictures shows, Matthew McConaughey, left, and Anne Hathaway, in a scene from the film, '"Interstellar," from Paramount Pictures and Warner Brothers Pictures, in association with Legendary Pictures.)

NATIONAL GUARD NAMES 2 KILLED IN COPTER CRASH — The Idaho Army National Guard says two chief warrant officers from Idaho were killed when their Apache helicopter crashed during a training mission near the Boise airport. Fifty-year-old Stien (STEEN) P. Gearhart and 43-year-old Jon L. Hartway were the only two people aboard the aircraft. Both soldiers were assigned to the 1-183rd (FIRST OF THE 183rd) Attack Reconnaissance Battalion headquartered at Gowen Field in Boise. Gearhart lived in Meridian, Idaho, and Hartway lived in Kuna, Idaho. - AP (An Idaho National Guard helicopter lifts off from a crash site where another Guard helicopter was reported to have crashed south of Gowen Field in Boise Thursday Nov. 6, 2014 sometime after 7 p.m.)

National Guard spokesman Col. Tim Marsano said the men's families have requested privacy. The cause of the crash will be investigated by the Department of Defense. The helicopter crashed Thursday evening about two miles south of the National Guard base. (A coroners van drives toward the crash site of an Apache helicopter that crashed south of the Boise Airport around 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 6, 2014.)

RIHANNA ANNOUNCES DIAMOND BALL TO SUPPORT CHARITY— Rihanna will host her first Diamond Ball on Dec. 11 to benefit her foundation that promotes education and arts globally. Rihanna announced Thursday that she would hold the black tie event at The Vineyard in Beverly Hills, California. The Diamond Ball will host around 600 guests, including celebrities. Attendees will be announced at a later date. (This Oct. 29, 2014 file photo shows Rihanna at the 2014 amfAR Inspiration Gala at Milk Studios in Los Angeles.)

DETAINEE FROM AFGHANISTAN PLEADS NOT GUILTY IN VA. — A Russian man charged with leading a Taliban attack against U.S. forces in Afghanistan pleaded not guilty to terrorism charges Friday and was ordered held until his April 13 trial. Irek Hamidullin was arraigned on 12 counts, including providing material support to terrorists, trying to destroy U.S. military aircraft and conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction. Half of the charges are punishable by up to life in prison. Attorney General Eric Holder chose not to seek the death penalty for the weapon of mass destruction charge, Assistant U.S. Attorney James Gillis said at the 15-minute hearing. - Larry O'Dell, AP (This artist rendering shows Irek Hamidullin, front center, his attorney Robert Wagner, front left, and interpreter Ihab Samra, front right, as judge Henry Hudson, left, listens in Federal Court in Richmond, Va., Friday, Nov. 7, 2014.)

JOURNALIST IN LIMBO FEARS RETURNING TO BOTSWANA — Journalist Edgar Tsimane says he faces danger if he returns to his home country of Botswana, where the government has criticized his reporting. The government in Botswana says it isn't out to get him and he can return anytime from South Africa, where he has sought asylum. - Lynsey Chutel, AP (In this photo taken Thursday Nov. 6, 2014 Botswana journalist Edgar Tsimane, is photographed at his home in Pretoria, South Africa.)

These days, two contradictory narratives are unfolding in Botswana, where President Ian Khama has begun a second five-year term after the long-dominant ruling party won re-election last month. Botswana is known internationally as a stable democracy, praised for clean governance and sound economic policies despite high unemployment and other challenges. Yet opposition leaders and critics accuse Khama, a retired general, and his subordinates of increasingly authoritarian behavior. (In this photo taken Thursday Nov. 6, 2014 Botswana journalist Edgar Tsimane, is photographed at his home in Pretoria, South Africa.)

SECRET FBI CALLS ISSUE IN MAN'S SUIT AGAINST US — The FBI is resisting turning over thousands of classified phone intercepts to a Florida man who is suing the U.S. government for malicious prosecution in a case in which the Justice Department dropped charges that he provided support to the Pakistani Taliban terror group. The FBI contends in court documents it would take about two years to declassify and translate up to 40,000 calls — most are in the Pashto and Urdu languages — before they could be provided to Irfan Khan's attorney for the lawsuit. The attorney, Michael Hanna, wants access to the calls to determine if any contain material that could bolster his legal case by potentially showing the government had compelling evidence that Khan was innocent. A Nov. 25 hearing is set before a Miami federal judge on the issue. - Curt Anderson, AP (In this Sept. 8, 2014 photo, Irfan Khan, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Pakistan, discusses his lawsuit against the U.S. government in his lawyers' Plantation, Fla. office.)

The couple met working at Wal-Mart and last month moved in together, along with Fellenbaum's estranged wife and three children — Tait's 6- and 3-year-old sons and the Fellenbaums' 11-month-old daughter. The six lived in a mobile home park outside the city of Coatesville, about 35 miles northwest of Philadelphia. The prosecutor said what started as spankings morphed into "concentrated, repeated, escalating abuse." Then, "over three days he was systematically tortured and beaten to death," Hogan said. The three adults told authorities "that Scott McMillan had been punched and beaten with blunt and sharp objects, whipped, taped to a chair with electrical tape and beaten, hung up by his feet and beaten, and suffered other acts of violence," police said in affidavits released Thursday. (This undated photo provided by the Chester County District Attorney's Office, in Pennsylvania, shows 3-year-old Scott McMillan.)

2 CHARGED IN DEATH OF BOY HUNG BY FEET, BEATEN - A Pennsylvania couple went car shopping, bought pizza and engaged in sexual activity as the woman's unresponsive 3-year-old son lay dying after weeks of escalating abuse that ended in three days of systematic torture, authorities said Thursday. Jillian Tait, 31, and Gary Lee Fellenbaum, 23, were charged Thursday with murder in the death of Tait's son, Scott McMillan, and aggravated assault in the beating of his older brother. They are accused of laughing as Scott was hung upside down and whipped, striking him repeatedly with a frying pan, and eventually beating him to death. - AP (This photo combo of undated images provided by the Chester County District Attorney's Office, in Pennsylvania, shows Gary Lee Fellenbaum, left, and Jillian Tait, who were charged Thursday, Nov. 6, 2014, with murder in the death of Tait's 3-year-old son, Scott McMillan.)

(This 2012 file photo released by National Geographic shows filmmaker James Cameron emerging from the Deepsea Challenger after his successful solo dive to the Mariana Trench, during the filming of Cameron's "Deepsea Challenge 3D," a 3-D film released in Aug. 2014. Cameron's film opens the Blue Ocean Film Festival, held Nov. 3-9, 2014 in St. Petersburg, Fla. The festival is one of the biggest environmental documentary events in the world - and also the rise of the emerging genre of cli-fi movies, short for "climate fiction.")

CLIMATE CHANGE INSPIRES RISE OF ‘CLI-FI' FLICKS — There's a giant, inflatable whale sitting in a Florida park this week, and it's more than just a public art piece. The blue whale signals the arrival of the Blue Ocean Film Festival — one of the biggest environmental documentary events in the world — and also the rise of the emerging genre of cli-fi movies. - Tamara Lush, AP (In this June 24, 2014 file photo, Thomas Potts, director of Florida International University's Aquarius Reef Base, dives down to Aquarius. A team of filmmakers and researchers dove with Fabien Cousteau on June 1 to Aquarius, a laboratory 63 feet below the surface in the waters off Key Largo, in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.)

VIRGIN GALACTIC PILOT'S SURVIVAL HAILED AS MIRACLE, BUT NOT UNIQUE — There were no ejection seats and no easy ways out of SpaceShipTwo if disaster struck. As the doomed flight rocketed past the speed of sound some 8 miles high and then shattered seconds later, the odds of survival were slim. Remarkably, as sections of the cockpit, fuselage, a wing and motor rained down over the Mojave Desert and pieces of the lightweight craft tiny enough to travel 35 miles were picked up by the winds, a single parachute was seen in the sky. - Brian Melley, AP (The Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo rocket separates from the carrier aircraft prior to it exploding in the air during a test flight on Friday, Oct. 31, 2014. The explosion killed a pilot aboard and seriously injured another while scattering wreckage in Southern California's Mojave Desert, witnesses and officials said.)

Pilot Peter Siebold was alive and drifting to safety. “It's no minor miracle that he did survive and survive in relatively good shape,” Virgin Galactic chief executive George Whitesides said this week. How Siebold, 43, survived the fall from extreme altitude while co-pilot Mike Alsbury, 39, perished a week ago is not yet clear, but Siebold is not the first to live through such a harrowing ordeal. (In this undated photo released Saturday, Nov. 1, 2014, by Scaled Composites, shows Michael Alsbury, who was killed while co-piloting the test flight of Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo on Friday, Oct. 31, 2014. The surviving pilot was identified as Peter Siebold, 43. Siebold was to undergo surgery, on Saturday, Nov. 1, 2014, but there were no other details on his condition, Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood said. Siebold also is a veteran of Scaled's spaceship test program.)

Bill Weaver has been telling a similar story for decades. The former Lockheed test pilot was torn from the seat of an SR-71 Blackbird at 78,800 feet above New Mexico on Jan. 25, 1966. The plane was going faster than 2,400 mph — more than triple the speed of sound. (Bill Weaver, 86, poses next to artwork depicting the SR-71 Blackbird spy plane that he flew as a test pilot in 1966, on Thursday, Nov. 6, 2014, in Carlsbad, Calif. Weaver was torn from his seat on a test flight in the plane going more than 2,400 mph at 78, 800 feet, but he survived.)

When the officer looked inside Santana's vehicle, he saw the calf lying in the back seat. Santana told police that he bought the animal for $200 at a gas station. Animal control officers found that the bovine's ear identification tag had been forcibly removed. Welsh says the 150-pound female calf was turned over to a farmer to be fostered while authorities try to find its owner. (In this Nov. 5, 2014 photo provided by Riverside County Animal Services, a 3 day-old Jersey calf is given a bottle of milk at the animal services in Riverside, Calif.)

CALIFORNIA MAN ARRESTED AFTER CALF FOUND IN CAR - Police in Southern California have arrested a suspected calf rustler after the animal was found in the back seat of his car. Riverside Animal Services spokesman John Welsh says an officer approached Cesar Zamora Santana early Wednesday when the man was spotted loitering outside an auto shop. - AP (A three to five day old calf named Shorty is now safe and sound in the care of a dairy rancher Thursday in Ontario, Calif. November 6, 2014.)

IOWA TEEN FOUND NOT GUILTY IN BROTHER'S DEATH — A judge on Friday found an Iowa teenager not guilty by reason of insanity in the killing of his 5-year-old foster brother, after the teen testified that he had powerful fantasies and thought at the time that he was killing a goblin. Harrison County District Court Judge Kathleen Kilnoski issued her decision shortly after closing arguments in the bench trial of 18-year-old Cody Metzker-Madsen. The teen had waived his right to a jury trial. Metzker-Madsen was charged with first-degree murder in the August 2013 death of Dominic Elkins. Authorities said Metzker-Madsen, who was 17 at the time, killed Dominic while they were playing outside of their home in the western Iowa community of Logan. The boy's body was found at the bottom of a ravine. (In this Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2014 photo, Cody Metzker-Madsen testifies during his first-degree murder trial in Logan, Iowa.)

The prayers ended peacefully, though clashes erupted again later in the day between Palestinian stone-throwers and Israeli troops in an Arab neighborhood of Jerusalem, at the main Israeli checkpoint on the outskirts of the city and at several locations in the West Bank. Tensions have been rising in recent weeks over the Jerusalem shrine, known to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary, and to Jews as the Temple Mount. (Palestinians hold stones during clashes with Israeli border police, as Israeli police limited the access to Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem on Friday, Nov. 7, 2014.)

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